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Charlottes web poster

Charlotte's Web is a 1973 animated musical produced by Hanna-Barbera and released to theaters by Paramount Pictures. It is an adaptation of the classic novel by E.B. White.

Summary[]

Early one morning, Fern Arable prevents her father John from slaughtering a piglet as the runt of the litter. Deciding to let Fern deal with nurturing the piglet, John allows Fern to raise it as a pet. She nurtures it lovingly, naming it Wilbur. Six weeks later, Wilbur, due to being a spring pig, has matured, and John tells Fern that Wilbur has to be sold (his siblings were already sold). Fern sadly says good-bye to Wilbur as he is sold down the street to her uncle, Homer Zuckerman. At Homer's farm, a goose coaxes a sullen Wilbur to speak his first words. Although delighted at this new ability, Wilbur still yearns for companionship. He attempts to get the goose to play with him, but she declines on the condition that she has to hatch her eggs. Wilbur also tries asking a rat named Templeton to play with him, but Templeton's only interests are spying, hiding, and eating. Wilbur then wants to play with a lamb, but the lamb's father says sheep do not play with pigs because it is only a matter of time before they are slaughtered and turned into smoked bacon and ham. Horrified at this depressing discovery, Wilbur reduces himself to tears until a voice tells him to chin up, and wait until morning to reveal herself to him. The following morning, she reveals herself to be a spider named Charlotte A. Cavatica, living on a web on a corner of Homer's barn overlooking Wilbur's pig pen. She tells him that she will come up with a plan guaranteed to spare his life.

Later, the goose's goslings hatch. One of them, named Jeffrey, befriends Wilbur. Eventually, Charlotte reveals her plan to play a trick on Zuckerman, and consoles Wilbur to sleep. The next morning, Homer's farmhand, Lurvy, sees the words, Some Pig, spun within Charlotte's web. The incident attracts publicity among Homer's neighbors who deem the praise to be a miracle. The publicity eventually dies down, and Charlotte requests the barn animals to devise a new word to spin within her web. After several suggestions, the goose suggests the phrase, Terrific! Terrific! Terrific!, though Charlotte decides to shorten it to one Terrific. The incident becomes another media sensation, though Homer still desires to slaughter Wilbur. For the next message, Charlotte then employs Templeton to pull a word from a magazine clipping at the dump for inspiration, in which he returns the word Radiant ripped from a soap box to spin within her web. Following this, Homer decides to enter Wilbur in the county fair for the summer. Charlotte reluctantly decides to accompany him, though Templeton at first has no interest in doing so until the goose tells him about all the food there. After one night there, Charlotte sends Templeton to the trash pile on another errand to gather another word for her next message, in which he returns with the word, Humble. The next morning, Wilbur awakens to find Charlotte has spun an egg sac containing her unborn offspring, and the following afternoon, the word, Humble, is spun. However, Fern's brother, Avery, discovers another pig named Uncle has won first place, though the county fair staff decides to hold a celebration in honor of Homer's miraculous pig, and rewards him $25 and a gold medal. He then announces that he will allow Wilbur to live to a ripe old age.

Exhausted from laying eggs and writing words, Charlotte tells Wilbur she will remain at the fair to die. Not willing to let her children be abandoned, Wilbur has Templeton retrieve her egg sac to take back to the farm, just before she dies. Once he returns to Homer's farm, he guards the egg sac until the winter. The next spring, Charlotte's 514 children are hatched, but leave the farm, causing Wilbur to become saddened to the point of wanting to run away. Just as he is about to do so, the ram points out that three of them did not fly away. Pleased at finding new friends, he names them Joy, Nellie, and Aranea, but as much as he loves them, they will never replace the memory of Charlotte.

Voice Cast[]

Singer Voices[]

  • Joann Alberts
  • Dick Bolks
  • Fred Frank
  • Susie McCune
  • Jay Meyer
  • Bob Tebow
  • Jackie Allen
  • Paul DeKorte
  • Bill Lee (singer)
  • Gene Merillo
  • Paul Sanderberg
  • Jackie Ward

Credits[]

  • Paramount Pictures Presents
  • A Hanna-Barbera - Sagittarius Production
  • E.B. White's Charlotte's Web
    • © 1972 Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. and Sagittarius Productions, Inc.
  • Story: Earl Hamner, Jr., Larry Clemmons, Ralph Wright, Ken Anderson, Vance Gerry, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, Dick Sebast, Art Stevens, Joe Grant, Burny Mattinson
  • Music and Lyrics by: Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman
  • Music Supervised, Arranged and Conducted by: Irwin Kostal
  • Featuring the Voices of:
    • Debbie Reynolds as Charlotte
    • Paul Lynde as Templeton
    • Henry Gibson as Wilbur
  • Executive Producer: Edgar Bronfman
  • Produced by: Joseph Barbera, William Hanna
  • Directed by: Charles Nichols, Iwao Takamoto
  • Voices: Rex Allen, Martha Scott, Dave Madden, Danny Bonaduce, Don Messick, Herb Vigran, Agnes Moorehead, Pam Ferdin, Joan Gerber, Robert Holt, John Stephenson, William B. White
  • Singers: Joann Alberts, Dick Bolks, Fred Frank, Susie McCune, Jay Meyer, Bob Tebow, Jackie Allen, Paul DeKorte, Bill Lee, Gene Merlino, Paul Sandberg, Jackie Ward
  • Art Direction: Bob Singer, Ray Aragon, Paul Julian, Andy Gaskill, Mike Giaimo
  • Songs Styled by: Bill Perez, Takashi Masunaga
  • Story Editor: Lew Marshall
  • Story Sketch: Jan Strejan
  • Dialogue Editor: Alex Lovy
  • Character Designers: Dale Baer, Peter Ellenshaw, Paul Lasaine, John Lasseter, Joe Ranft, Melvin Shaw, Chuck Williams
  • Layout: Mo Gollub, Jerry Eisenberg, John Ahern, Jack Huber, Gary Hoffman, Alex Ignatiev, David High, Mike Arens, Don Morgan, Lew Ott, Ric Gonzalez, George Wheeler, Leo Swenson, Dick Bickenbach, Irv Spector, Tony Fucile, Joe Hale, A. Kendall O'Connor, Sylvia Roemer
  • Animation Coordinators: Jerry Hathcock, Bill Keil
  • Key Animators: Hal Ambro, Ed Barge, Lars Calonius, Dick Lundy, Kenneth Muse, Irv Spence
  • Animation: Ed Aardal, Lee Dyer, Bob Goe, George Kreisl, Don Patterson, Carlo Vinci, O.E. Callahan, Hugh Fraser, Volus Jones, Ed Parks, Ray Patterson, Xenia, Lew Irwin, Roman Arambula, Tom Johnson, Frank Endres, John Gentilella, Al Eugster, Wm. B. Pattengill, Morey Reden, Tom Moore, David Tendlar, Aaron Blaise, Les Clark, Marc Davis, Andreas Deja, John Freeman, Mike Gabriel, Eric Goldberg, Lennie K. Graves, Mark Henn, Cliff Nordberg
  • Key Assistant Animators: Pat Combs, Bob Hathcock, Rae McSpadden, Joan Orbison, Lillian Evans, Charlotte Huffine, Margaret Nichols, Jay Sarbry
  • Assistant Animator: Sammie Lanham
  • Background Supervisor: F. Montealegre
  • Backgrounds: Lorraine Andrina, Fernando Arce, James Baxter, Lyle Beddes, Arthur Butten, Caird Green, Claire Greenford, Al Dempster, Venetia Epler, Ronald Erickson, Will Finn, Martin Forte, Bob Gentle, Al Gmuer, Don Griffith, Joseph Griffith, Jr., Gino Giudice, Richard Khim, Tom Knowles, Gary Niblett, Rolando Oliva, Eric Semones, Jeannette Toews, Peter Van Elk
  • Scenics: Anton Loeb, Joseph Dommerque
  • Sound Direction: Dick Olson, Bill Getty, Joe Citarella
  • Sound Designer: Robert O. Cook
  • Music Coordination: Paul DeKorte
  • Music Editors: Evelyn Kennedy, Winston Sharples, Jr.
  • Musicians: Ethmer Roten · Flute
    • Live Action Sequence:
    • Produced by: Winston Hibler
    • Directed by: Vincent McEveety
    • Costumes by: Edith Head
    • Film Editor: Cotton Warburton, A.C.E.
    • Set Decoration by: Emile Kuri, Frank R. McKelvy
    • Art Directors: John B. Mansbridge, Cosmo Anzilotti
    • Makeup: Robert J. Schiffer, Pat McNalley
    • Hair Stylist: La Rue Matheron
    • Unit Production Manager: Roger Vreeland
    • Secont Unit Director: Arthur J. Vitarelli
    • Sound Supervisors: Herb Taylor, Robert O. Cook
    • Sound Mixer: Dean Thomas
    • Costumes: Chuck Keehne, Emily Sundby
    • Assistant Director: Christopher Hibler
    • Special Effects: Eustace Lycett, Danny Lee
    • Libra Technician: Camera Revolution · Ian Speed
    • Assistant to the Conductor: James MacDonald
  • Editorial Supervision: Larry Cowan
  • Film Editor: Pat Foley
  • Effects Editors: Richard C. Allen, Earl Bennett, Joe Sandusky
  • Negative Consultant: William E. DeBoer
  • Post Production: Joed Eaton
  • Production Supervision: Victor O. Schipek, Don Hahn
  • Production Managers: Don A. Duckwall, Edward Hansen, Richard Rich
  • Technical Supervision: Frank Paiker
  • Ink and Paint Supervision: Jayne Barbera
  • Ink and Paint: Madlyn O'Neill, Joan Pabian, Kitty Schoentag
  • Xerography: Robert "Tiger" West
  • Title Typography: Robert Schaefer
  • Colorist: David A. Block
  • Camera: Roy Wade, Dick Blundell, George Epperson, Ralph Migliori, Dennis Weaver, Cliff Shirpser
  • Soundtrack Released by Paramount Records
  • Color by Movielab-Hollywood, Inc. and Technicolor
  • This picture made under the jurisdiction of I.A.T.S.E.-IA, affiliated with A.F.L.-C.L.O.
  • Approved No. 23349 Motion Picture Association of America
  • © 1972 Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. and Sagittarius Productions, Inc.
  • RCA Sound Recording

Gallery[]



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